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The Dordogne River rises just to the west of Le
Mont-Dore in the Auvergne Mountains of central France.
It flows southwest and then west for about 300 miles
before, near Bordeaux, joining forces with the Garonne
River to form the Gironde estuary. From its source in
the hills it passes through rich and rolling countryside
picking up the nutrients that help feed the roots of the
Bordeaux region's famous grape plants. |
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Conversations about the Dordogne River valley will
immediately make some people think of wine. After all,
the Dordogne feeds many vineyards of Bordeaux, the
largest quality wine region in the world and an area
that produces almost one-third of the fine wines of
France. Just north of the city of Bordeaux, the Dordogne
does slide by the vine-covered slopes of the Libourne
region's St-Emilion and Pomerol vineyards. Further
upriver almost as far as Cyrano-made-famous Bergerac,
the Entre-Deux-Mers wine houses help in the production
of the dry Graves renowned throughout the world.
However, you are stopping short of some of the river's
most interesting sites if you elect to stop your inland
plunge at Bergerac.
Further east a cyclist's fancy will find rolling hills
of wheat-filled fields and cool distractions. Make a
short detour to Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, where the Font de
Gaume, a cave, is home to the region's most important
cave drawings. Medieval Sarlat, just a pedal turn
beyond, is the center of a fine concentration of hilltop
castles. Now the land is also beginning to change,
becoming lusher, more accentuated. The river swings
within detour's range of one of southern France's
most-visited wonders, the cliff-edge medieval village of
Rocamadour. From there to the river's spring in the
Auvergne Mountains, it is grand stretches of quiet
country roads and slow French villages.
The Périgord has formed the front line in many
conflicts, and this has had a tremendous effect on the
culture and style of the area. After three centuries of
peace under the Romans, the area was attacked
successively by Alemanni and Franks, followed by
Visigothes and the Franks again before the Vikings laid
waste to the region in the 9th century. |
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In the 12th century a lady called Eleanor of Aquitaine
married Henry Plantagenet, future Henry II, King of
England. Her dowry was … the whole of South West France.
Not everybody was happy about suddenly becoming English,
and for the next 200 years the French and English went
at it periodically across the border of the Dordogne
River.
One of the more famous protagonists was Henry's son,
Richard I, Coeur de Lion, or 'The Lion-Hearted' to his
mates. Richard the Lionheart was briefly resident at
Château Beynac, and in fact this English King, as well
as hardly ever setting foot in England, presided over a
very bloodthirsty set of Barons in the Périgord.
Things got even hotter midway through the 14th century
when these continual skirmishes erupted into The Hundred
Years War. The Périgord was successively conquered and
re-conquered, and was largely laid to waste in the
process. The end of The Hundred Years War in 1453, with
the Bataille de Castillon, heralded peace for the first
time in 300 years.
Less than a century later, the Périgord was in the front
lines again when the repeal of the Treaty of Lyon led to
more than 100 years of fighting in The Wars of Religion. |
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The French Revolution must have seemed like a
well-earned break. This continual conflict has left an
amazing architectural heritage, with dozens of castles,
walled towns, fortified churches and farmhouses. But, it
also impoverished the area for centuries, and this
general depopulation is still evident today. It is only
in the last 30 years that tourism has brought some
regeneration to The Dordogne. If you visit in
December, the whole region is deserted, and I find it
amazing to see how long-term the effects of so much
conflict can be. |
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